Teaching Quotation Marks

As the school year progresses, I always try to push my students to try new craft moves in their writing.  Early in the year, I introduce using speech bubbles to show dialogue (read about that here).  Partway through the year, I find my more advanced writers are ready to start using quotation marks.  It is great to offer a second way for students to show conversation between characters.  Quotation marks can be a bit tricky, but it's worth it to teach the correct way to use them.  Even if kids don't get the comma in the exact right place, it is an important skill they will be able to refine in the future.

To teach the use of quotation marks, I return to one of our favorites, Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes.  This is a read aloud I share the first week of school to talk about how our words have power.  It is a great lesson that many kids can connect with.  Kevin Henkes has so many great books and I wish I had time to use all of his books throughout the year.  So many great books, so little time!  Anyway, I like to use Chrysanthemum because there is such great dialogue on almost every page.

For this mini lesson I start by putting the text (or a copy of some of the pages) up on the Smartboard.  We look for quotation marks and I highlight them in yellow.  I point out the comma and we highlight that in blue.  Then I give kids copies of various pages of Chrysanthemum that I have photocopied.  They work together in pairs, highlighting the quotation marks in yellow in each sentence of dialogue.  We discuss their findings and share them using the document camera.

The next day we review their observations from Chrysanthemum, discussing that there are quotation marks and commas where the dialogue is.  I have some dialogue prepared on chart paper (without quotation marks and commas) and we go through it together and add quotation marks in the appropriate places.  Then, I have them get out one of the books they have already written (or are in the middle of writing) that has dialogue.  They practice adding quotation marks with the guidance of their learning partner.

In second grade, I don't expect perfection with this skill, which is why we focus on just adding the quotation marks.  Later mini lessons can focus on the dialogue tag and that pesky comma (if it's needed).  The next time I teach quotation marks, I am going to try incorporating some strategies that Jeff Anderson suggests in Patterns of Power.  He has some great lesson ideas, and the key one I think I am going to try out is using the focus phrase, "I open and close words spoken aloud with quotation marks."  It helps bring students' attention to the fact that quotation marks are used when a character is speaking.   If you are interested in Anderson's lessons, I highly recommend his books.  Patterns of Power is focused on primary, while Mechanically Inclined and Everyday Editing are more suitable for those teaching upper elementary on up.  Those books are linked at the bottom of the post if you're interested in checking them out.  

I'd love to know which texts you use to teach quotation marks~share those below!

Happy Reading!!

~Carrie

Kevin Henkes~Chrysanthemum

Jeff Anderson~Patterns of Power

Jeff Anderson~Everyday Editing

Jeff Anderson~Mechanically Inclined